2 new books!

I'm happy to announce publication of the first of these board books I've been working on with Little Tiger.

They are due out on the 3rd of march and you can get them on their website here or on Amazon.

The concentric circles you can see in the cover designs are die cut holes that go through the whole book.

I'll try and get some pics of the spreads later.

3 seasonal chunkies scented books

These are 3 books I worked on a little while back that are now published but I am waiting on copies still. You can purchase them here or on Amazon. Apparently they have a scent to them....intrigued to find out how that works :0)

past work

Was searching through my archive of work and put these together. A small selection of some of the elements I liked from the work I did for Nick Jr between 2009-2011 on the "Bedtime stories". They were really fun projects to work on but very labour intensive. Sometimes I felt I just didn't have enough time to really do the work justice but they had their timescale and I had to stick with it, lots of weekends and late night work. The stories were read by celebs and appeared on "the EarlyWorm show". I even got a follow up email from Donna Air's assistant asking if I would maybe be interested in doing some work with her on a children's book but unfortunately nothing came to fruition.

Sneak peek

I've been very busy over the past month but have a little more breathing space now.

Here's a little sneak peek of things I've been working on. Can't say or show much but hopefully in the near future :0)

found my work on you tube!

work

Been doing a very busy stint of work getting through a couple of book projects but I'm out the other end now...yeah! Got a couple of other book projects on the go and waiting on another coming in any day now. It's good to be busy :0))

Yesterday I booked up flights +hotel to London for a business meeting with a publisher there. Very excited about this! :0) A couple of months away yet but I am looking forward to it. I spend so much time on my own it'll be nice to do a day of being and meeting with different people and seeing new scenery! :0))

Communication issue resolved!

My last 2 posts have been to do with a company I'd been dealing with recently.
I was having a bad experience but I have to now put this to right.
As the client are in Korea any email they get in english comes in as spam and this had not been checked until now.
So the client has got back to me apologising and we hope that things can pick up again where they left off.
Phew! It's good to know an explanation now and that this issue has been resolved :0)

Bad company

Just wanted to name and shame the publisher in question that I posted about-Samsung Publishing in Korea. So if you get a email from them saying they like your work my advice would be to steer clear.

Words of warning to other illustrators

I want to give a heads up to other illustrators out there. I know I wouldn't want anyone else to have this same experience.

Recently I was contacted by a Korean publishers which I was delighted about. They had a great project for me-I was excited to make a start. We were corresponding on a daily basis-very pleasant and nice communications. She was delighted too that I was able to work on the project. She loved my work!

I was sent a contract and I made a start on sketches.

Sent the first page of sketches off for review and didn't hear anything for a couple of days which I allowed for with them being in Korea and the time difference.

I then sent an email asking if they could let me know that they received the sketches and was looking forward to feedback...nothing.

A couple of days later I sent another email-perhaps she was ill and I could expect to hear from her soon.

Still nothing. No explanation or acknowledgment. I am now resigned to the fact they are making it clear they do not want to move forward with this project and me.

I was first contacted on the 24th of dec and last contact was on 6th january when I sent the sketches.

The real sore point for me is no explanation-I've been left totally in the dark as to why this company have, for some reason, decided to sever all contact without even a thanks but no thanks.

I am extremely disappointed and in all my years of business I've never been treated like this.

I probably won't get any payment for the work I did do (although I have now sent an invoice for work done to date). I am just thankful it was only sketches and only one page.

It just goes to prove how unprotected we all are with foreign clients.

Fortunately my other foreign clients are all very gracious, courteous and professional- and I am back to them, always.

This Korean publisher are not so I want to warn other illustrators about them.

I sent this publisher another email this morning, giving them one more chance to get in contact and to give an explantation as to why they are not corresponding with me anymore.

I doubt I'll hear anything.

For any of you illustrators out there-if you would like to contact me privately regarding this issue please feel free to do so :0)

sketchy time

Been busy sketching things for jobs.